Money calls money, and 2024 has proven it again according to Forbes estimates. If more than half of the 2,800 billionaires have become richer over the last twelve months, several of them have seen their fortunes literally explode as the markets soar. Here are the ten billionaires who benefited the most from 2024.
Starting with the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. The boss of Tesla and SpaceX saw his wealth increase by $188.1 billion, in particular thanks to the 68% increase in Tesla shares and the valuation of his artificial intelligence start-up xAI at $50 billion. and the 60% increase in that of SpaceX. The latter is also the most valuable private company in the world. Elon Musk, with a fortune estimated at $439 billion, became in December one of the very rare personalities to have accumulated more than $400 billion.
The AI push
We then find Mark Zuckerberg. The boss of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) earned $91.8 billion in 2024, thanks in particular to the 67% rise in Meta shares. It compensated for the 64% loss he experienced in 2022. With a fortune estimated at $214.4 billion, Zuckerberg became the fourth billionaire to have more than $200 billion.
The American, however, remains behind Larry Ellison. The co-founder of Oracle, a software company, saw his company’s shares rise 68% on the AI buzz. The third richest man in the world earned $84.5 billion in 2024 and now has a fortune of $218.3 billion.
IT and supermarkets
The world’s second-largest fortune, Jeff Bezos ($241.2 billion), is only in fifth place for the biggest gains in 2024 (+$68.9 billion), despite an increase of 53%. of Amazon stock. He was surpassed this year by Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia.
Thanks to AI, the company’s shares rose 185%, earning it $74.3 billion in 2024 and moving into the top 10 richest people in the world ($117.2 billion). Still linked to IT and AI, the fortune of Michael Dell (Dell Technologies, Broadcom) increased by $46.6 billion, to $115.3 billion.
La Walton dynasty
Finally, the rest of the top 10 is mainly made up of the three children of Walmart co-founder Sam Walton: Rob Walton ($112.5 billion, +$46.5 billion in 2024), Jim Walton ($111.3 billion dollars, +$44.5 billion in 2024) and Alice Walton ($103.5 billion, +$41.7 billion in 2024).
All benefited from the 80% rise in Walmart shares thanks to increased e-commerce sales and lower prices for consumer goods. The last in the top 10 is Larry Page, co-founder of Google, who earned $40.5 billion in 2024. His fortune is now estimated at $156.6 billion.
